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book, music, and lyrics by Joel Walley
additional story, lyrics, and dramaturgy by Soph Marsh
directed by Soph Marsh

When the Daffodil Blooms is presented as part of the 2025 KC Fringe Festival. For tickets and more information about KC Fringe see here. 

When the Daffodil Blooms is a world premiere musical that reimagines the myth of Narcissus and Echo for the modern age. It explores identity, connection, and self-perception through an experimental score and innovative storytelling, examining how we navigate love, attention, and reflection in a world of ever-increasing individualism.

This is a show that I originally began working on in 2019, and then dropped when the Covid pandemic shook things up. Despite everything, the story kept stewing in the back of my mind until I finally took it up again. After completely rewriting the score and revising the book, the show will finally get it's premiere at KC Fringe in July of 2025. After that, who knows! But I look forward to continuing to develop it alongside my dear friend and collaborator Soph Marsh. 

The score for When the Daffodil Blooms is, in part, themes and variations from Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker, in part an exploration of Serialism in the vein of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, and in part entirely original. It is a musical challenge with an ultimate goal of storytelling, and a side quest of theatrical innovation and finding my own musical voice. Besides the music and technical writings of Tchaikovsky and Schoenberg, I have been inspired by the theatrical compositions of Dave Malloy, Anaïs Mitchell, and Tom Kitt, as well as the various musicians who have worked on this show including Sisterbot and Stephonne Singleton. There are so many intensely creative and talented musicians in Kansas City who I continue to learn from, and a rich history of music that guides me into the future. 

The 2025 KC Fringe production of When the Daffodil Blooms is not just the this show's premier, but the first official production of The Playground

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